The Funny Farm
Where life is beautiful all the time and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats...
Adventures of a Basic Force For Good in Our TimeTM
Humpday, 21 Infusion 2006
Congress Gives Itself 7th Straight Pay Raise
[emphasis of any kind courtesy of the Funny Farm Editorial Staff]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500. The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate. Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it. [snip] Like last year, Matheson led a quixotic drive to block the raise. He was the only member to speak on the topic. "I do not think that it is appropriate to let this bill go through without an up or down vote on whether or not Congress should have an increase in its own pay," Matheson said. But by a 249-167 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get a direct vote on the pay raise. The pay raise would also apply to the vice president - who is president of the Senate - congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices. This year, Vice President Dick Cheney, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Chief Justice John Roberts receive $212,100. Associate justices receive $203,000. House and Senate party leaders get $183,500. President Bush's salary of $400,000 is unaffected by the legislation. |
Now, I don't know about you, but I wonder how someone making $165,000 (or more!) a year feels justified in giving themselves a cost of living adjustment to their wages, yet is strangely unsympathetic towards raising the minimum wage? Without even wanting to discuss it as part of the public record? And I wonder how long it will be before it will be treasonous to disclose such information because it will endanger national security...
Heartfelt thanks go out to pessimist at The Left Coaster for finding this story, and linking to it, so's I could see it. It seems a bit odd, though, that when you type the title of this article into the Associated Press's search engine, you come up empty. I wonder why that might be?**
* - with all due homage to Mel Brooks and History of the World, Part One, where I shamelessly appropriated creatively utilized this post title from.
** - it might have something to do with the changing the title of the article that took place between the original article and the copy that TLC linked to. Damn you, George Steinbrenner!
Posted by (: Tom :) at June 15, 2006 11:49 PM